irreversible vs reversible work

[Gladys Nava 1K]

can someone explain why irreversible work of expansion does more work than reversible work of expansion? I'm still confused about that.

[Jay Solanki 3A]

First of all, reversible expansions do more work than irreversible ones. This is because there are successive small increments of pressure change in a reversible reaction compared to a sudden pressure change through the irreversible process. You can test this using the equations for reversible and irreversible work (using the same volume change of course). Hope this helps!

[Jarrett Sung 3B]

It's actually the opposite. The small increments done in a reversible reaction need more work than a sudden, large change in pressure.

[Fiona Huang 3C]

In an irreversible process, entropy is generated within the gas in the system, and whenever entropy is generated within the system, there is less opportunity to perform useful work. So, more work is done in a reversible process.

[kentbui1d]

Reversible is made of small steps. These small steps require more energy.

[Phoebe Joseph]

Reversible work of expansion does more work than irreversible work of expansion because the small increments that you have to use in reversible expansions require a lot more work than just letting the system expand. I think about it like blowing up a balloon. Say you had to blow this balloon up and you could do it in one puff. But then, someone comes a long and says you can only blow it up in infinitely small little little puffs. Think about how annoyed you would be. Why would you be annoyed? Because you have to do more work!

[Constance Newell]

Reversible usually has smaller steps while irreversible is normally under a constraint.